Guns International #: 102449141
Seller's Inventory #: 230992

Category - Civil War Pistols - Derringer Antique

Category
Civil War Pistols
Derringer Antique

c1850s HENRY DERINGER PHILADELPHIA Pistol .42 PENNSYLVANIA Lincoln Antique Gold Rush, John Wilkes Booth, Civil War

Description:
c1850s HENRY DERINGER PHILADELPHIA Pistol .42 PENNSYLVANIA Lincoln  Antique

Gold Rush, John Wilkes Booth, Civil War

Here we present an antique Henry Deringer Pistol, made circa the 1850s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Henry Deringer was a very successful Pennsylvanian gunsmith who started his own company in his early twenties, circa 1809. It was not until the 1850s that his prototypical “Deringer” percussion pistol became extremely popular. Once it did become popular, the basic design was copied in dozens of different shops. Not only was it copied, but Deringer’s good name was stamped on guns made by others, some of them not up to the quality standards of Deringer himself. The inventor was apparently very worried about protecting his good name, so he pursued and sued any of the counterfeiters that he could find and warned the buying public to beware of his spurious imitators.

The name “Deringer” often invokes certain historical event, characters or moments in film. Deringer’s name has become both a noun and a catch-all term. President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed with one of Henry Deringer’s pocket sized percussion pistols, the night John Wilkes Booth revenged the South at the Ford Theater. They conjure images of the California Gold Rush, as well as riverboat gamblers. These pistols were very practical for the time, being small and concealable and of large bore size.

The Civil War brought new technology to weapons and when sales of the Deringer pistol declined, Henry turned to the courts to defend his trademark.  Suits were brought against several of the imitators, but it was his successful 1863-70 case against A. J. Plate that set patent infringement history.  A District court awarded Deringer $1,770 in damages and issued a permanent injunction against Plate's use of the Deringer trademark. On appeal the California supreme court upheld the verdict.

Here is what Charles Edwin Chapel had to say about the Deringer pistol:

“For a man in a tight spot, with an armed enemy only a few feet away, a pair of single-shot Deringer pistols was more effective than the multishot pepperbox. You either got your man at the first or second shot—if, indeed, you were given the chance to fire twice—or you got a fast funeral. That heavy-calibered little gun was a man-stopper at short range, an effective surprise weapon, an “equalizer” with which many a gold-camp David permanently tamed the muscle-bulging, belligerent Goliaths of the frontier. Included in a man’s personal arsenal, the pistol was carried either as a principal weapon or as a reserve to be used when revolver, pepperbox or Bowie knife failed.”

The overall condition is good. Original patina. The action is excellent and strong. The bore is in good condition with sharp rifling. The stock shows use and there is a repair at the grip that is smooth and solid. The barrel wedge is a replacement. A good and affordable example of an original Deringer!

Own the original! This is a legitimate antique and not a reproduction.

Barrel is 3 inches.

Caliber: .42 Percussion

Overall condition as seen in photos.        

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ancestryguns

$2000

#230992
 

SOLD

Antique: Yes